Noah: Salvation and New Creation

Noah's story is one of great faith in that he builds a boat (probably miles away from any water) and believes the warning of God that he will destroy the world in a terrible flood. There is ,however, another side of the Noah story in that it pictures the nature of salvation in Jesus the Messiah. Genesis 1, the creation story, confirms that all things came from the power and word of God. God uses the backdrop of a formless, chaotic, and lifeless world covered in darkness and fills it with light, order, and life (Genesis 1 is not so much about HOW things came to be. It is rather about WHO the creator God is. He is a God who delights to bring light into darkness, order into chaotic situations, and brings life into lifeless, dead situations (a wonderful picture of Christian salvation: God brings light, order, and life into dark, chaotic, and lifeless persons as well). What is happening in Genesis 6 is really a return to Genesis 1 with the earth again being covered in water chaos, and the extinction of life. This is God's judgment on a sin-increasing world. Noah, however, finds favour with God because he alone is a 'righteous man' in Genesis 7.1. It is important to note that the text is very clear that it is Noah ALONE who is designated by God as being righteous. God makes a covenant with Noah and here again, it is with Noah ALONE, not with his sons or family. Noah's family, of course,  enter into the ark with Noah but that is because of their relationship with Noah the 'righteous man'. This is a clear picture of Biblical salvation in that Christians are 'saved' on account of and through the merits of a 'righteous man'. Jesus is the Christian's Noah and we enter into the 'ark' of 'salvation' on his account.

It is interesting that there is only one door into the ark on its side, This seems strange when you think about how many animals and all the supplies that were needed to fill the ark, yet there is only one door, After Noah's family and the animals enter the ark, it is God himself who shuts the door in Genesis 7.16. God also instructs Noah to cover the ark inside and out with 'pitch' (Genesis 6.14) The phrase 'cover it with pitch' is the same phrase used in the covering of the basket for the baby Moses in Exodus 2.3. Moses' story is in some ways similar to the story of Noah. Moses escapes destruction in an 'ark' that travels through the waters to deliverance as Noah did (going through 'the waters' to salvation and safety is also a part of the Exodus story in Exodus 14 where Israel passes through 'the water' that later destroys the Egyptian army. Coming out of  'the waters' is probably a major symbol behind water baptism for Christians as well as we are 'drawn' out of the water perhaps symbolizing judgment to new life. The ark survives the flood to land on the top of Mt Ararat (actually the 'mountains of Ararat') where Noah offers a sacrifice which results in God smelling the soothing aroma of this sacrifice in Genesis 8.20-21. Although it can be translated a 'soothing aroma', it can also be translated a 'restful aroma'. Through the burnt offering of a sacrificial animal God is at rest and there is nothing now but goodwill from God.

What we learn from Noah's story is a picture of salvation and new creation. The flood waters represent judgment and the earth returns to the waters of chaos and deadness. The ark is the only place of safety and salvation and there is only ONE door. Jesus is our ark of salvation and deliverance and just like the ark's single door, there is only one way in. There are not 'many' doors or several different ways to enter. There is only one door, only one way. There is only one way to God the Father and that is through the substitutionary life and death of Jesus. When Noah and the animals leave the ark, it is Genesis 2 all over again like Adam and the animals. It is really a new or renewed creation (a new start). Noah takes Adam's place on 'the mountain' which is like Eden (Ezekiel 28.14 speaks of Eden as also being a mountain. The mountain-Eden picture is also perhaps pictured in Isaiah 2.7 when many nations will say, 'Come, let us go up to the MOUNTAIN of the Lord' which has a hint of a return to Eden as in the beginning. There is a kind of pattern in Scripture concerning mountains and water that goes like this: Noah travels through the waters of judgment and meets God on a mountain. Moses and Israel go through the  Red sea, a sea of judgment and meet God on a mountain. There is even a pattern of Jesus going through the waters of baptism in Matthew 3-7 and then climbing the mountain for his famous sermon on the mount. Only with Jesus he takes the place of God. John the Baptizer's baptism at the Jordan is a picture of judgment and salvation which Jesus goes through. On one side of the Jordan is the wilderness. Being baptized and 'passing through the waters' takes the one being baptized from the wilderness into the land of Israel or the Promised Land. It is passing from 'death' to 'life'.The Jordan river was the boundary between the two. Jesus, however returns to the wilderness because he becomes the new and obedient son and replaces Israel who in the wilderness became the disobedient son. He becomes the 'New Israel'.

 Noah begins again to take on Adam's authority and responsibility as the head of the 'New Creation'. He is commanded, like Adam, to be 'fruitful and fill the earth and subdue it' in Genesis 9.1. The 'waters' symbolize death and chaos from which God delivers and saves us. How wonderful to think of Jesus 'walking on the water' as in John 6.16-21. He is the master over all chaos, judgment and death and he becomes our 'living ark'.